As the national media continues to promote the idea that these absurd "Occupy" protests demonstrate some groundswell of popular opinion, reports continue to emerge from localized media showing how ugly these encampments are becoming. A report out of Cleveland that police are investigating a rape claim made by a 19-year-old woman last weekend has received little attention. Do you suppose if a rape claim was made against a tea partier that it would receive more attention?

It's gotten so bad in Baltimore that organizers are discouraging alleged victims from going to the police (maybe they should go to Sheriff Biden).

Meanwhile, out in Oakland "occupiers" have taken to threatening reporters who dare enter their space. Ironically, it's public space, but I guess they've claimed it as their own. Also in Oakland they've been overrun by the dregs of society, resulting on what one police office says it a scene akin to the Lord of the Flies.

The tent city that has sprung up on the steps of Oakland City Hall has attracted a diverse range of people, many with competing ideologies and world views. Homeless people, ex-convicts, at least one registered sex offender, students, unemployed hotel workers, anarchists and reform-minded activists freely mingle together in what amounts to a democracy free-for-all.

Sometimes, everyone appears to be on the same page. But the skein of civility has been frequently shattered as bullies, the mentally ill, drunks, thugs and anarchists have threatened the safety and well-being of the camp's more peaceful residents.

Whenever you see the media insisting things are peaceful, think the opposite.

One Oakland police officer, who asked to remain anonymous for reasons of police protocol, described the scene in tent city as akin to a scene from "Lord of the Flies." And, indeed, the on-the-fly rule-making can often veer into an oppressive, anarchic mood.

Journalists are routinely shooed away and told off by angry residents. One Oakland police supervisor said that the participants first appeared to him as "freethinking activists" but have since devolved into something more sinister. He said it was "interesting for a group that claims to be against current civilization and rules to set up a far more oppressive society than our own."

Down in Los Angeles the "occupiers" have already trashed their current location and are looking to upgrade their digs. They also have hopelessly confused about what they want and, since they're apparently stoned out of their minds, can't come up with an actual list of demands, outside of recurring requests for munchies, it appears.

There are a lot of big ideas floating around Occupy L.A., but not a whole lot of consensus. The protesters have yet to codifya list of demands. In recent days, tensions within the group have spiked over drug use and growing numbers of homeless who have joined the camp.

Rachel Goldie, 20, decided to leave the protest Wednesday because she felt it had been corrupted by people who didn't care about economic justice. "Everybody is pretty much just partying it up," she said.

Police have been watching the protest closely from a command post inside City Hall. The department sent more than 30 officers to monitor the protest last weekend, Smith said. The daily and weekend deployments are not costing the city extra money, he said. But, he said, the protest is "taking police services away from the rest of the city where they should be out answering 911 calls."

So if someone is raped and police are unavailable, just blame Joe Biden.

The incident highlights an emerging rift between the Occupiers and homeless, who have moved into the tent city to feast on freebies. Occupy protesters and a law enforcement source said cellphones, laptops and other items have been swiped from tents, but Driscoll said the department has received no reports of robberies.

“The homeless people are down there lurking around,” a law-enforcement source told the Herald. “Some of them are mentally ill and criminally insane. The potential is there for problems.”

How they can tell the difference between protesters and the mentally ill is unclear.

Looks like we've also got a developing Lord of the Flies scene brewing there.

“It’s turning into us against them,” Warner said. “They come in here and they’re looking at it as a way of getting a free meal and a place to crash, which is totally fine, but they don’t bring anything to the table at all. It gets really frustrating.”

Jackson Bush, manning the Occupy information tent yesterday, said some homeless people have been hoarding free items, including donated coats.

Funny how a mob who wants to redistribute the wealth becomes upset when the homeless want to help themselves to other people's property.

I’m starting to wonder if the real intent here is to “launch” the movement (IOW, take it mainstream) by provoking a police over-response along the lines of Chicago 1968 and Kent State.

Scenario would be the cops move in to deal with the low-level crime and public health/sanitation issues. The protestors, completely wound up and conditioned to distrust law enforcement and resist by their leadership, riot. This then triggers a MUCH LARGER police response, leading to mass casualties among the protesters.

Which would then, theoretically, stampede middle America/the Silent Majority into support of the protesters.

Its turning into us against them, Warner said. They come in here and theyre looking at it as a way of getting a free meal and a place to crash, which is totally fine, but they dont bring anything to the table at all..."

Sort of like the 48% of Americans who pay no income taxes whatsoever who want to increase taxes on the other 52%.

Its turning into us against them, Warner said. They come in here and theyre looking at it as a way of getting a free meal and a place to crash, which is totally fine, but they dont bring anything to the table at all..."

Sort of like the 48% of Americans who pay no income taxes whatsoever who want to increase taxes on the other 52%.

As I look back on OWS I know realize this was bound to happen. The people that are there are not there because of a focused cause. They are there because it seemed like the right thing for them to do because they where told so. They are now exercising their liberal Utopia and it is turning ugly.

The founders of OWS wanted revolution. They got more of a Woodstock without the music because the protesters are idiots. Just listen to them speak.

Even a quick study of the history of revolutions in this world shows conclusively that there are major characteristics that they share: THE IDENTIFICATION AND ELIMINATION OF ENEMIES, and the use of TERROR as a means of securing the goals and power of the revolutionaries. They all murdered in such mass that it is incomprehensible. Hate and murder are their legacies.

Another characteristic of revolutions is that the revolutionaries all think they’re smart enough rule the world. And they think that they can come up with some perfect form of government.

In total contrast to all that stands the genius of the Founders and the Revolution they fought, and the Constitution they developed. The major characteristic they shared was a profound distrust of anyone who thought they were smart enough to rule the world. The Founders didn’t try to create a perfect form of government. They very successfully sought merely to limit government - and thus the power of those who think they’re smart enought to rule the world. The Founders wisely understanding this, left the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS in the hands of each citizen.

Unfortunately that is something modern liberals and putative revolutionaries don’t understand (of if they do understand it they don’t like it ...) .

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